Max Mosley: Notes on a scandal

Max Mosley’s big mistake was in trying to defend himself against the lurid accusations thrown his way

Forgive me for the personal nature of this question, but when you are enjoying an orgy with five prostitutes, do you tend to speak to them in German? Stuff like "Raus!" and "Hände hoch!"

Or maybe you can't speak proper German and thus have to say things like: "For you, Ulrika, ze war ist over!" I just wondered.

This is the allegation that has been levelled at Max Mosley, the president of Formula One's governing body, the FIA, an allegation to which he has taken grave exception. You will note that it is not the orgy allegation with which he contends, but the speaking German stuff. He insists that while he may have spoken in German to a couple of the young ladies, he did so because they were themselves German and it therefore seemed only polite, rather than because he was pretending to be Joachim von Ribbentrop or Julius